Murder in Constantinople
by A.E. Goldin
When I told a friend about the premise of Goldin’s MURDER IN CONSTANTINOPLE (Pushkin Vertigo, 340 pp., paperback, $18.95), she quipped that “this book ticks all of the Sarah boxes.” ’Tis true: A historical mystery starring a Jewish tailor’s son in Victorian London who’s itching to see the world and break away from his faith is exactly the kind of novel I like to read — and thankfully, “Murder in Constantinople” delivers a multitude of pleasures.
That tailor’s son, 21-year-old Ben Canaan, is a good-for-nothing prone to getting into trouble, much to his father’s chagrin. He’s also mourning the death of a secret love after one perfect summer together two years ago. Then Ben discovers a recent daguerreotype of the woman: “It had to be some cruel joke. But faces do not lie, and this one was etched on his memory. It followed him wherever he went, haunting him like a ghost that refused to be banished.” Searching for answers takes him to Constantinople, where he finds himself in the middle of a terrorist plot, not to mention several murder cases.
Goldin ratchets up the tension by dropping a new plot development in nearly every chapter, leaving Ben — and the reader — gasping for breath. The book’s best moments showcase Ben’s coming-of-age, as he learns to wield his independence.
Fox and Furious
by Rita Mae Brown
Brown once remarked that she was born knowing precisely what she wanted in life: “Horses, hounds, and literature.” All three passions converge in her long-running mystery series featuring “Sister” Jane Arnold, the Master of Foxhounds at the Jefferson Hunt Club in Virginia’s Blue Ridge Mountains.
FOX AND FURIOUS (Bantam, 275 pp., $30), the 16th installment, finds Sister mourning the death of a good friend, Olivia Bradford, while trying to mediate a violent conflict between her sons, Winston and Andrew. Inheritance fights, public death threats, a beating — and then murder, Cain-and-Abel style. Or is it? Sister refuses to believe it could be so.
To say this is most unpleasant business would be to understate matters, but Sister remains as implacable and resourceful as ever. Although the book ambles along, more content to relay details about fox-hunting and Southern gentility than salient plot points, the twist at the ending genuinely surprised me.
The Dentist
by Tim Sullivan
A new police procedural has crossed the Atlantic, and it is clear, from the publishing fanfare, that Sullivan’s THE DENTIST (Atlantic Crime, 353 pp., $27) — the first of seven already published in the U.K. — is expected to be a hit in the U.S., too.
In Bristol, Detective Sergeant George Cross, who is neurodivergent, sees connections where normies can’t, closing cases at an astonishingly high rate even as he struggles to understand the most basic social cues. His partner, Josie Ottey, does her best to work with her maddening, recalcitrant partner as they investigate the death of an elderly homeless man who, it turns out, is a dentist who had vanished years before, after the murder of his wife.
Sullivan, a veteran director and screenwriter, is in total command of detail and pacing, even if the interrogation scenes — there are many — go on a beat too long. Cross is a protagonist worth sticking with for further adventures.
Mockingbird Court
by Juneau Black
Finally, I’m pleased to report that MOCKINGBIRD COURT (Vintage, 249 pp., paperback, $17), the sixth installment in Black’s cozy Shady Hollow series, is the best of the bunch. (If you haven’t traveled to the bucolic, woodsy village of Shady Hollow before, no matter. All you need to know is that the town’s residents are animals — wolves, ravens, foxes, otters, raccoons, bears, chipmunks — though they. never feel like anthropomorphic Disney characters.)
The novel kicks off when Vera Vixen, an intrepid vulpine reporter at the Shady Hollow newspaper, catches a story that directly implicates her. It’s Bradley Marvel’s fault. The obnoxious thriller writer, a wolf, shows up at her house in a panic, begging for her help after becoming the prime suspect in the death of his editor, Richard Renard.
“Think of how famous you’ll become when you write the exposé piece about how I was unjustly accused of murder, a hapless victim of a broken and corrupt system,” he beseeches her. “Do you think we should use the same photo that’s on my books, or should I pose for a new one?”
This investigation is going to be different, and difficult, for Vera. She, too, knew Renard — and like Bradley, she has reasons to be happy he’s dead.
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